links for 2009-07-28

Scott Adams, creator of the popular comic strip Dilbert, has a simple but useful strategy of personal success: you can either choose to hyper-specialize and become the best in the world (top 1%) at doing one very specific thing, or you can try to become very good (top 25%) in as many different areas as possible, which you then can use in combination. The latter strategy is far easier, and is often more effective: by improving your skills in a few different but related areas, you increase your versatility and rarity, making your particular combination of skills more uniquely valuable.

If you’re interested in improving the quality of your life and work, there are the 12 primary areas of “Core Human Skill” you should focus on developing